Primary Laws. 75 



the free, separate, and independent state as noumena 

 to the associated, combined, or organised condition as 

 phenomena — in other words, when " natural selection " 

 first ensues among the atoms. But as we cannot see 

 the atoms as noumena, or learn by direct observation 

 how atomic or molecular selection and aggregation 

 occur, our conclusions must be arrived at by analogy 

 from operations in visible phenomena, aided by those 

 processes of reasoning- from effects to causes hitherto 

 employed and validly established by scientists in 

 constructing the unseen from the seen, and the in- 

 visible from the visible. 



Section 1. First Law '7 Like-M r ate rial- Attraction : 

 Definition : Like atoms and like molecules auto- 

 matically attract each other in order to effect 

 suitable productive conditions. 



In nature many simple elements, such as gold, 

 silver, and lead, are deposited in solid bodies of visible 

 form. As these bodies are composed solely of particles 

 of one particular element, the affinity uniting them as 

 a solid inevitably belonged to them in, and accom- 

 panied them from, the invisible noumenal condition. 

 Suppose we trace the sequence of this affinity in a 

 nugget of gold ? 



Subjecting the nugget to heat, it gradually passes 

 from the solid to the molten or liquid state. But, as 

 liquid, the atoms are not perfectly free — some bond 

 still knits them together ; hence, it is only by raising 

 the temperature still higher that we dissipate the 



